An intensive, workshop on rural economic development in the Central American Isthmus, southern Mexico, and the Dominican Republic will be held in Guatemala City March 5-7 to explore ways to overcoming bottlenecks constraining the development of the rural economy and to reduce rural poverty.
The workshop, to be held at the Camino Real Hotel, will bring together for intense discussion and problem-solving more than 300 participants working on macroeconomic policy, rural economics, agriculture, natural resources, technology, rural infrastructure, poverty reduction, environmental protection, among other issues.
The event is co-sponsored by the IDB and the United Kingdom and organized by the IDB. It will be inaugurated at 4:00 p.m. March 5 by Guatemala’s Minister of Agriculture Jorge Escoto.
Among those attending the conference, titled "Developing the Rural Economy from Puebla to Panama," will be cabinet ministers, experts from multilateral banks and specialized government agencies, representatives of civil society, academics, and researchers from specialized institutions.
The workshop takes on additional urgency because of the need for several Central American countries to accelerate rural development to overcome the devastating effects of recent natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in El Salvador and Hurricane Mitch.